Staff Counselor, P-3 at UNICEF

Major Duties and Responsibilities

1. The Staff Counsellor will identify activities aimed at raising awareness about healthy work practices; improving the work-life balance of UNICEF staff; facilitating the provision of assistance to staff experiencing work-related and/or personal problems; facilitating the provision of immediate support following a traumatic incident.

2. The Staff Counsellor will work in coordination with the network of other UN counsellors available in the duty station. Frequent field missions and close collaboration with Chiefs Field Offices, HR Managers, Deputy Representative and Chiefs of Operations are required.

3. Under the general guidance and day to day management of the Regional Staff Counsellor and in collaboration with the Representatives and HR Managers, facilitate the provision of effective psycho-social support to staff leadership, managers and individual staff members prioritizing the most isolated locations within primarily South Sudan and secondarily Burundi and Madagascar to mitigate stress and boost protective factors by providing support and advice to the leadership and managers in offices on healthy work practices and approaches on how to effectively support staff and encourage resilience.

• Recommend suitable staff support strategies to managers during and following emergencies and other crises. Providing staff with individual and/or group counselling as needed (i.e. assessment, short-term intervention, and referral).
• Facilitating the treatment of psychiatric disorders primarily through referrals, including to the medical services division, and through guidance to supervisors and senior management, where appropriate;
• Coordinate with the Security Advisor and UNDSS, agency counsellors and Peer Support Volunteers (PSV), to ensure the provision of adequate psychosocial support during emergencies.
• Assess and monitor psycho-social needs and issues affecting the wellbeing of staff.5. The Staff Counsellor will be responsible for:

4. Provide Critical Incident Stress Management to groups- and/or individual staff following critical incidents. A holistic approach to critical incident management is used and may include services such as practical support, psycho-education, psychological first aid, and strategic advice to leadership.

5. The Staff Counsellor will be responsible for:

• Contacting the affected staff member(s) and offering information about typical stress reactions, support- and referral information
• Facilitating appropriate traumatic stress interventions, following a critical incident or traumatic event.
• Recommending and arranging for individual and/or group follow-up support to staff.
• Developing relevant and innovative support tools to provide remote support for staff member's well-being. 

6. Training and awareness raising on Staff Well-Being related topics:

• Explore and contribute to the development of new modalities, such as e-learning and webinars, which make awareness raising material available and attractive to all staff
• Cooperate with the Regional office to integrate subjects such as healthy work practices, managing stress and trauma, building resiliency etc. into learning strategies.

7. Support to the Peer Support Volunteers (PSV) Network in country

• Provide regular supervision and training to PSV's.
• Provide case by case support to PSV's as needed.

8. Monitoring and oversight:  Provide on a quarterly basis statistics and trends on issues related to staff well-being, whilst maintaining confidentiality.  Alert the Representatives and HR Managers on trends that may be of concern in the office requiring targeted support or Managerial intervention. Capture lessons learnt and best practices for dissemination as appropriate

9. Any other duties, as assigned by the supervisor

Qualifications of Successful Candidate

1. Education

Advanced University degree in counselling, clinical psychology or related mental health profession. Additional training or certification in staff support and traumatic / critical incident stress as well as a broad range of related fields, such as alcohol/substance abuse, family counselling, training, stress management. A first university degree, professional certification in addition to the appropriate years of relevant experience may be taken in lieu of an advanced University degree.

*First university degree with additional two-years of relevant work experience is acceptable in lieu of an advanced university degree.

2. Work Experience

Minimum five years of national and especially international professional experience in staff support, mental health, cross cultural communications, counselling, and related areas.

3. Language

Fluency in French and English

Competencies of Successful Candidate

• Quickly builds rapport with individuals and groups
• maintains an effective network of individuals across organizational departments.
• Able to work effectively in a multi-cultural environment.
• Sets high standards for quality of work.
• Discretion and high regard for confidentiality.
• Keen social awareness and judgment
• An empathic non-judgmental clinical approach;
• Strong communication/interpersonal skills;
• Resourcefulness and awareness pertaining to common counselling caveats (e.g. overzealous client advocacy, burnout, etc.);
• Collegiality;
• Awareness of the need for self-care and personal counselling;
• Prudence in adhering to professional boundaries (administering only those services for which supervised training has been administered).

1. Core Values

• Commitment
• Diversity and Inclusion
• Integrity

2. Core Competencies

• Communication
• Working with People
• Drive for Results

3. Functional Competencies

• Leading and Supervising
• Formulating Strategies and Concepts
• Analyzing
• Relating and Networking
• Persuading and Influencing
• Creating and Innovating